Spiritual Guidance: Too many Disc Priests?

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Are there too many Disc Priests? Is it becoming overwhelming?

The popularity of Discipline has started to spread. I don't believe it's been entirely adopted just yet. There's still a few hold outs who continue to think that Discipline is not able to hold it's own against the other specs and classes. By hold its own, I mean stand up and compare to. Now obviously other healing classes will believe that their class is superior and they should because we do have a certain loyalty to ourselves. I respect the capabilities of Paladins, Druids, and Shamans. I don't think they're inferior. But I'm still going to be a Priest for life.

There can never be enough Disc Priests!

I am proud to be a Discipline Priest. It is not just a style. It is not a simple technique. It is a way of life. I know that there are closet Discipline Priests out there. I get emails and messages from them often. There's always questions out about differences between a Holy Priest and a Disc Priest.

The messages usually starts off sounding something like this:

Dear Matt

I'm a Holy Priest. And I'm tired of it! I want to be Discipline but I don't know how to tell my guild leader that. The rest of the raid still believes Disc Priests are inferior and are unable to handle the rigors of healing.

Please help!

From,Wannabe Disc

A typical response from me would be something like this:

Dear Wannabe,

From a technical standpoint, a Disc Priest is more than capable of holding their own against other healers. I'm sure you know that otherwise you wouldn't have sent me this email.

Understand that the conceptions regarding Disc stretch back a long time. Disc was the bonafide PvP spec back in the day. It's not that your guild leader thinks that Disc sucks. It's that they think Disc isn't suited for raiding.

The other day I was sitting around trade chat looking for an instance group to heal. I used the LFG tool and sat in a heroic halls of lightning. I got a whisper asking if I was Holy. I responded that I was a healing Priest and received an invited promptly. To make a long story short, we blew threw that instance. No one died. I even encouraged them to stay in during Loken and that I could brute force heal that encounter. Suffice it to say, at the end of the run, one of the fellows said I was one of the best Holy Priests that they have ran with. I politely pointed out that I was Discipline and he became even more impressed.

Turns out one of the Priests in his guild wanted to go Discipline but he had his reservations. After seeing what a Disc Priest could do first hand, he decided to give him a chance.

So go ahead and switch to Discipline. Then run a few normal or heroic instances. Try to include your skeptical players in there. Show them that you can handle that. And you better stand on your head when you heal. The proof, as my grandma used to say, is in the pudding.

Just be advised that switching from Holy to Discipline is going to be a fairly expensive process. Some enchants will have to be redone and your gems will need to be reconfigured with more Intellect.

Good luck!

From,Matticus

I do consider myself an evangelist for the Discipline Priest. I try to promote it as enthusiastically as possible and I try to help players new or unfamiliar understand the power and capability of Discipline.

Am I overdoing it? Have I alienated Holy Priests? Not my intention at all. I've been the staunchest supporter of Holy for the longest time. After playing the class for over 2 years, I felt that a change of pace was in order. Losing a Holy Paladin to real life essentially forced me to switch my spec (and what a blessing in disguise that was).

But perhaps Discipline fever is running at an all time high. One of the latest posts that got sticked in the Plusheal forums? Switching from Holy to Disc: A Basic PvE FAQ. There's nothing about going from Disc to Holy (probably because there isn't a need for it).

6 questions to ask yourself if you've become too attached to Discipline:

Do you own a Discipline Priest t-shirt, bumper sticker, mouse pad or coffee mug?No, but I got the Disc hat and I wear it at all times!

Do you have any of the Discipline talent icons tatooed and/or shaved on your person?...My beard is sort of shaped like a Penance bolt.

Have you decorated your home in "Penance colors"?My walls are painted in Penance white.

Have you registered DiscPriest.com?No, sadly, the idea never occurred to me. Otherwise I might have!

Have you attended a Discipline march/rally/convention?I tend to be at the center of those.

Have you ever passed out pro-Discipline literature at your local gaming shop?I write those, too!

So I'm 3 for 6. Guess I'm not too attached yet. I don't think I'm addicted yet, either. Besides, it's not like there's a program out there. Discoholics anonymous anyone? There is nothing wrong with being Discipline! Speccing Discipline is not akin to supporting Communism! Don't let the naysayers get you down!